OTTAWA — A U.S. doctor who survived the Ebola virus says he'd like to eventually return to West Africa, the place where he got sick.
For now, though, Dr. Kent Brantly says the experience has given him a platform to raise awareness about the virus.
"My goal in moving to Liberia in the first place was to help the people of Liberia and West Africa," Brantly told a news conference Friday in Ottawa.
"I feel like right now, this platform that I have to come to speak to people like you is allowing me to help those I went to serve in the first place in a much bigger way than I could caring for 25 to 50 patients a day.
"But in the grand scheme of things, I hope that eventually I get to go back to do the work that I was doing before."
Brantly and a fellow aid worker were diagnosed with the illness while treating patients in Liberia. both were treated with the experimental drug ZMapp and eventually recovered. Brantly was discharged from an Atlanta hospital in August.
Brantly — in Ottawa on behalf of the aid group Samaritan's Purse to talk about the group's use of recent federal funding — said he's glad he received the drug, but believes there needs to be a lot more data on its efficacy before it is approved.
"I'm very thankful for the opportunity I had to receive a drug, even though it had never been given to another human being. It could have killed me. We didn't know if it was going to work or not," Brantly said.
"To be honest with you, scientifically speaking, until a drug has been tested thoroughly on lots of people and we have a lot of data, we still don't know its efficacy.
"My story is one anecdote — and it's a very compelling anecdote — but it's just one. And before we can say that we have a drug that can cure or treat most cases of Ebola, we have to have the data to prove that."
